To run the SoS tool, SSH in to the SDDC Manager Controller VM using the root account, navigate to the /opt/vmware/sddc-support directory and type ./sos followed by the options required for your desired operation.

./sos --option-1 --option-2 --option-3 ... --option-n

To list the available command options, use the --help long option or the -h short option.

./sos --help
./sos -h

Note:

You can specify some options in the conventional GNU/POSIX syntax, using -- for the long option and - for the short option.

SoS Tool Help Options

Use these options to see information about the SoS tool itself.

Option

Description

--help

-h

Provides a summary of the available SoS tool options

--version

-v

Provides the SoS tool's version number.

SoS Tool Options

These are generic options for the SoS tool.

Option

Description

--configure-sftp

Configures SFTP for logs and backup.

--debug-mode

Runs the SoS tool in debug mode.

--backup

Domain name on which the SoS operation is to be performed.

--bdomain-name DOMAINNAME

--history

Displays the last twenty SoS operations performed.

--remote

Tags file for backup to SFTP.

--setup-json SAMPLE_JSON

Custom setup-json file for log collection.

SoS prepares the inventory automatically based on the environment where it is running. If you want to collect logs for a pre-defined set of components, you can create a setup.json file and pass the file as input to SoS. A sample JSON file is available on the SDDC Manager Controller VM in the /opt/vmware/sddc-support/ directory.

--zip

Creates a zipped tar file for the output.

SoS Tool Options for Health Check

These SoS commands are used for checking the health status of various components or services, including connectivity, compute, storage, database, domains, and networks.

A green status indicates that the health is normal, yellow provides a warning that attention may be required, and red (critical) indicates that the component needs immediate attention.

Option

Description

--certificate-health

Verifies that the component certificates are valid (within the expiry date).

--connectivity-health

Performs a connectivity health check to inspect whether the different components of the system such as the ESXi hosts, Virtual Center Servers, Inventory Service VMs, Log Insight VM, NSX Manager VMs, PSC VMs, SDDC Manager VM can be pinged.

Verifies whether the switches in the system are reachable and connectivity exists between the management, ToR, and inter-rack switches.

--network-wire-map

Performs a network wire map health check.

--ntp-health

Verifies whether the time on the components is synchronized with the NTP server in the SDDC Manager Controller VM. It also ensures that the hardware and software timestamp of ESXi hosts are within 5 minutes of the SDDC Manager Controller VM.

Performs a check on the VSAN disk health of the ESXi hosts and vCenter clusters. Also runs Proactive vSAN tests to verify ability to create VMs within the vSAN disks.

SoS Tool Options for Audit Data Collection

These SoS commands are used for collecting audit data. Audit data consists of version and configuration details obtained from the various physical and logical components that constitute VMware Cloud Foundation, including racks, servers, switches, domains and VMs.

Option

Description

--audit

This option collects audit information from all the components of Cloud Foundation.

By default, audit data is saved in the /var/tmp/audit-compliance/audit directory as a JSON file. The log file is saved under /var/tmp/audit-compliance/logs.

--audit-output-dir

Use this option to save audit data JSON files to a directory other than the default /var/tmp/audit-compliance parent directory.

Note:

This option can be used with the --audit option.

--no-audit

Use this option to prevent audit data collection during SoS log collection.